In Circles Around You
by createprotecttransform
Summary: Prince Gumball is an uptight ballet dancer and Marshall Lee is a relaxed Hip hop dancer. Can Marshall teach Gumball to relax? Don't mock it till you try it.


**Hi everyone, this story was inspired from the prompt from fanficyprompts .tumblr .com: **_**Imagine Prince Gumball is a highly strung ballerina and Marshall Lee is a relaxed hip-hop dancer. The two cross paths but never truly meet until Gumball registers for the wrong class and ends up next to Marshall Lee. Can Marshall teach Gumball to loosen up for a change?**_

**I'm having so much fun with this, it's practically writing itself. It'll be a chapter story, not sure how long yet, but here comes the first instalment. Let me know what you think *grins*.**

Marshall Lee strolled through the hallways of Candice Kingdan's Academy of Dance, moving slowly enough to maintain his bad boy image but fast enough to avoid being reprimanded by his teacher, even if it was only Ms Strong. Girls and boys eyed him appreciatively as he walked by, smiling and winking in the hopes that he would return their interest, he kept walking however, congratulating himself on being so bad ass. As he walked through the door to his class he stopped dead in his tracks, gaping in a very un-bad ass way.

A long, tight clad leg was up against the adjacent wall, its owner leaning over it in order to stretch before class commenced. Marshall's eyes dropped to the floor below it, where he followed the line of it's shapely twin all the way up to a pert, heart shaped behind before continuing up along a toned lean back and long graceful neck to... pink hair? Whoever this dude was he could certainly pull off the vibrant colour, and Marshall decided he had to meet this guy immediately.

"Hey there, the name is Marshall" he said huskily, turning on his charm and leaning against the wall beside the stretching boy, who simply sighed before continuing his exercises. "You're new to this class I see, what's your name?" When he still received no response from the other boy apart from a raised eyebrow between different stretches Marshall frowned, that wasn't supposed to happen. He began to turn away when Mr Too-good Pink-hair bent at the waist, providing a view so distracting he forgot to be offended, even though he knew he should.

Luckily Ms Strong chose that moment to enter the room, signalling the beginning of the lesson and saving Marshall from look too pathetic. He watched in disbelief as the teen formerly stretching straightened up and flounced to the front of the class room, full of an obscene amount of confidence that left Marshall lightly fuming. He decided to take the place right beside his tormentor, laughing inwardly at the less than pleased expression on that composed bratty face.

This should be fun.

Two hours later and Gumball was dripping with sweat, his cheek flushed the same colour as his hair due to exertion and embarrassment. How much harder this class had turned out to be than he had originally thought; and to think he had laughed when he found out about his accidental registration, telling his fellow ballet students that it would practically be a free lesson. He knew if they could see him now they would be beside themselves with laughter, he'd been dancing since before he could even walk, and in just two hours of contemporary he had lost all of his confidence in his ability.

"Nice moves", he heard behind him, and he cringed before turning to face the boy that had spoken to him before the lesson had begun; the same boy who incidentally had danced circles around him, fluid and relaxed in a way that Gumball had never quite learnt to be. He expected to find the boy, Marshall, looking at him with contempt after the way he had acted before the lesson, however he was surprised to find an open, friendly expression on the pale face before him. "It can be hard to adjust from classical ballet to hip-hop, and vice versa" he said, picking up his bag by the door and turning to smile and give a small wave.

Marshall rushed to the door after a few seconds to call out as it had occurred to him, "Wait, how did you know I'm a ballet dancer?" he called out and Marshall turned, walking backwards with a cheeky smile on his face.

"Are you kidding me? With legs and an arse like yours, how could you not be?" he called turning and disappearing into the crowd, some of whom giggled and murmured their agreement, causing Gumball tot urn and make his way into the room quickly, flush painting his cheeks. Hip-hop class would be the death o him, one way or another.

"Pink hair, you say?" Fiona asked, distracted by the comic books in the rack before her.

arshall rolled his eyes, flicking the condensation from his frozen raspberry crusher at her, smirking at her horrified expression as she quickly wiped the moisture from the book in her hands.

"You know I said pink hair, Fi, stop asking me like you didn't hear me glob's sake. Do you know the guy or not, girl?" Marshall followed her around the room, looking over her shoulder, taking comics from her hands and generally annoying her in the hopes that she would give in and tell him what he wanted to know. It seemed that luck was not on his side however, when she turned and swiftly kicked him in the shin before moving to the other side of the store, chuckling as he hobbled and limped in her direction.

"You're so annoying, you bat" she said when he finally reached her, tucking a stray lock of long blonde hair behind her woollen hat. It was the middle of spring, what was up with that? "No wonder Gumball didn't tell you his name" she said and flounced off as he finally registered what she had just told him.

"Gumball? What sort of name is that for his parents to give him?" he asked giggling, ignoring Fiona as she rolled her eyes at his immaturity. "It's almost as bad as your best friend, Kitty" he grinned, the name Gumball floating through his head over and over.

"Ahem?" he nearly floored himself, whipping around to see Kitty herself standing there, staring him down with an icy glare before moving to greet Fiona in a much friendlier fashion.

"Oh, hey there, what's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" he asked, very amused with himself before abruptly changing tact when he realised his current one was going to win him no favours. "You know I'm only messing around Kitty, you truly are my favourite feline", he said sweetly, feeling triumphant when Kitty turned away to hide the blush that was forming. Yep, charm works every time.

"So you fancy Gumball?" Kitty asked as Marshall took a sip of his drink, only to choke and splutter the liquid everywhere. Okay, so maybe the charm didn't work every single time, especially on evil Kitty who cackled while people were _choking_.

"Do you know him?" Marshall choked out, watching with baited breathe as the girls exchanged a look. Shit, this was not going to be easy, or fun. The girls giggled at the forlorn expression on the dark haired boy's face, taking him by the arms and cooing to him as though he were a baby. They ended up agreeing to tell him a little about Gumball, but only after he bought them lunch.

He was right: not easy, or cheap.

Gumball woke with a start, his alarm blaring loudly on his bedside table as he looked around bewildered. He never slept until his alarm, always waking much early to practice yoga and ease himself into the morning. He raised his arms to stretch and immediately remembered the cause for hie oversleeping. All his muscles protested as he moved out of bed and headed towards the shower, a consequence of staying up at such a late hour, practising the moves that Miss Strong had set for them until he felt confidant he wouldn't make a fool of himself. He may not have intentionally signed up for this class, but that did not mean he would be anything less than the best.

Dressing quickly and grabbing an apple he was out the door, making his way to CKAD. He didn't have for to go and therefore walked at a leisurely pace, enjoying the cool morning air. Just as he took his apple from his messenger bag a large crowd of people emerged from the subway ahead of him, and he elegantly weaved his way through the bodies with a pleased smile, lifting his apple only to find that someone else had already taken a bite!

He whipped around angrily, coming face to face with Marshall from his hip-hop class. He frowned his displeasure and the guy had the decency to at least look a little guilty, though he still seemed a little too pleased h\with himself in Gumball's opinion, who wordlessly passed him the apple before turning and continuing on his way.

"Red delicious is my favourite, I couldn't help myself" Marshall said, falling into step beside the other teen and giving him his best puppy dog eyes. Darn it.

"It's okay, I suppose. I didn't have anything else for breakfast though", Gumball sighed, knowing that just because he couldn't stay mad at _that_ face, it didn't mean he couldn't dish out a little guilt as well.

"Oh man, now I feel really bad" he complained, stopping to stare at his feet and surprising Gumball, who turned once he realised there was no longer somebody walking beside him. "Hey, are you okay?", he asked, though he received no response. "Marshall? It's okay really, I'm not going to waste away" he joked, walking back to the other boy and nudging him with his shoulder. Marshall looked up at that, and even though his smile didn't quite reach his eyes, Gumball decided to count it as a success.

"I don't know about that, you could probably stand to weigh a little more, Hell, I could probably lift you", he muttered, shoving his hands into his pockets and continuing to walk to the school entrance, which was just around the corner. Suddenly Marshall perked up and Gumball held his breathe not having any idea what to expect, especially after the hallway incident yesterday.

"In fact", Marshall began and Gumball raised an eyebrow in his direction to indicate that he was listening, even if it was against his better judgement. "Well I have to admit I feel bad about your apple, it's really only fair that I make it up to you, I'm sure you agree".

"Is that right?" Gumball asked sarcastically as they walked up the stairs to the entrance way, and smiled, pleased and surprised when Marshall held the door open for him. Well at least the dark haired boy had shown a few manners this morning.

"Yeah absolutely", Marshall nodded enthusiastically, obviously not noting the sarcasm in Gumball's voice. "So I was thinking I should buy you lunch" he nodded to himself, hoping to appear decisive but coming across as cute and hopeful instead. Gumball sighed at the transparent request.

"Thanks for the offer Marshall, however I already have lunch plans" he said with a small smile, hoping to convey regret but not too much. No need to encourage the boy now. He cringed as Marshall tried and failed to laugh in an unaffected way.

"Oh hey, it's no big deal, just trying to do the right thing. Maybe some other time or whatever. Thanks for the apple", he said, waving before making a hasty retreat down the hall to one of the furthest classrooms.

Watching as he glanced back at Gumball just before he entered the room, Gumball sighed and adjusted the strap of his bag on his shoulder.

He couldn't help but with he'd just said yes.

*****End of part one**

**Okay so I hope that you liked it, let me know what you think :)**


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